Irish eye immediate impact on defense from Jackson

Prized freshman expected to bring energy, aggression to that end of court

October 09, 2013|By Brian Hamilton, Chicago Tribune reporter

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — As a senior, it fell to Eric Atkins to determine teams for pickup basketball at Notre Dame. In the interest of withering the other side to ash heaps, Atkins often assigned Demetrius Jackson to his squad, one point guard seeking an acceleration assist from another.

To Jackson, the prized top-50 recruit from neighboring Mishawaka, Ind., there was nothing strange about the scene. Playing with another lead guard wasn't an anomaly. It was an opportunity.

"Actually, I love playing with him because I like guarding Jerian (Grant)," Jackson said at media day Wednesday, referring to the Irish's other starting senior guard.

"Jerian is a great offensive player. He's really making me better on the defensive end. There's been a few times where we've kind of bumped heads a little bit, but for the most part, it's just being a competitor."

Notre Dame envisions many ways in which the 6-foot-1, 195-pound Jackson will make an impact on the program, but the first is as an unremitting hellhound on the ball, infusing baseline-to-baseline aggression into a defensive approach that often has been safe and staid before all else.

Nothing has been decided, but there is a working premise for Jackson: Bring him off the bench early, direct him to the opposition's ballhandler and watch as his energy gets to the point.

"I don't think he could do that all the time in high school because he had to play the whole game; he couldn't wear himself out," Irish coach Mike Brey said. "We're going to be able to put him in and really pressure the ball. That's the one thing he can bring right away, and he loves to do it."

Teammates, meanwhile, would love to see him do it to someone else.

"Good defenders have names like 'pesky,' 'annoying,' and he's just like that," Atkins said. "He's like that every time I've played against him, probably since he was a (high school) junior coming up here. He would pick me up full-court and annoy me."

Said forward Tom Knight: "He's got a lot of energy, he's strong as an ox. He's not going to be outworked by anybody, that's for sure."

One look at Jackson confirms he can play this part. There is no freshman baby fat, and the brute compactness of his frame suggests he can affect guards like a meat tenderizer affects sirloins.

He accepts that duty. Meanwhile, Brey at times will field an Atkins-Grant-Jackson backcourt for premium quickness and attacking offenses, as the Irish coach put it, "more than we've ever done."

"When we have that three-guard lineup in there, it really helps pressuring the ball, getting up into guys and causing some turnovers," Jackson said. "The more turnovers you get, the more you can run."

Jackson can pierce the lane as well as anyone on the roster. He may be among the team's best finishers already. But it's what he can start at the other end that has Notre Dame energized.

"He takes every matchup seriously, no matter who he's guarding," Grant said. "It's not where you think, you ran him around for three straight possessions, this one you're going to get an open shot. He goes hard 100 percent of the time.

"That's what gets annoying about it. Those types of defenders are the elite ones, and he can definitely be that."